No Political Influence On Cash Transfer Programme – Minister
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Nentawe Yilwatda
No Political Influence On Cash Transfer Programme – Minister
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Nentawe Yilwatda, has raised concerns about attempts by some politicians to influence the social register used for the government’s conditional cash transfer programme.
Naija News recalls that President Bola Tinubu-led government had approved a ₦4 billion allocation for conditional cash transfers aimed at supporting vulnerable households across Nigeria, particularly those displaced by conflict and other crises.
Speaking during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, Yilwatda revealed that certain individuals are pressuring his ministry to compromise the process for political gain.
However, he maintained that the social register is a collaborative effort involving the international community, including the World Bank and civil society organisations (CSOs), making it beyond the sole control of his ministry.
The Minister said, “Some people want us to bend and allow the governors or the states to just generate the list and send. It’s a conditional transfer; conditions are attached to qualifying to benefit from the social safety net.
“So, we will not bend to allowing any political affiliation or attachment to this conditional cash transfer. Poverty doesn’t know political party, poverty doesn’t know tribe, poverty doesn’t even understand the grammar we are blowing. A poor person is a poor person.”
Transparency and Digitalisation
Yilwatda disclosed that cash transfers have been temporarily suspended to introduce stricter measures for transparency and accountability.
He announced that the use of National Identification Numbers (NIN) and Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) is now mandatory for all digital transactions under the programme.
“It is going to be clearly digital. This time around, we are carrying the CSOs along so that all payments, we will ask them to verify, they can do follow-ups and we can have some levels of transparency in what we are doing,” he stated.
Progress and Challenges
Although 19.8 million Nigerians are listed in the nation’s social register, the minister said only 1.2 million have been validated so far.
Validation involves verifying beneficiaries’ identities, locations, and living conditions to ensure that funds reach the intended recipients.
No Political Influence On Cash Transfer Programme – Minister
“Currently, we have a social register; we have 19.8 people on the social register but when you have a list, you need to validate that list.
“For now, the people that have been validated are only about 1.2 million people. We need to validate the entire register so that we can get the actual people who are supposed to benefit from it, authenticate their locations; their houses, where they are, and capture on GPS location — the location of their homes.
“So that we are sure they exist and be sure that these people are as poor as they claim because there are social indices for judging poverty like access to water, access to health, access to education, and access to economic facilities. So that you can now pick the poorest of the poor in the society,” Yilwatda explained.
With each receiving ₦75,000, the federal government aims to support 15 million poor households.
